Way of life, Arc 7 of "Gone with the Sun"

Chapter 87 Beware! Beware!


Hohlraum

The conference room in North Cape, near the war chamber, differed from that of Normandy in detail, but had the same transparent walls – so Jana saw at once that Shepard and Chambers were already seated there.

"Oh no. Would you please have your chaplain say a prayer for my soul?"

Mikhailovich knew Jana was, in the jargon of the day, 'protheist' in the sense that she felt the universe to be run by an incompetent god. But she was aggressively atheist in the sense that she did not believe in souls. The Admiral, too, enjoyed gallows humor:

"You think this is bad, doctor? At a suitable moment I will be withdrawing the control rods from the pile. A good test." Jana emitted a slightly hysterical laugh:

"What, all three of them are here?"

"And Shepard. Yes. It is the only way, doctor." They entered the glass room and engaged the security field. "But we begin with what you asked me to do in Limbo."

Implosion

Jana sat and shivered, causing Kelly to look at her oddly. On the wall vidscreen, the admiral brought up an excerpted video and audio of his last conversation with Jana in Limbo: Put Shepard on ice, too. For a rainy day… Do something about Chambers."

Then he retreated to the far end of the room, and inclined his head fractionally. Proceed. Jana had already put her face in her hands at the hot, high-pressure gaze from Shepard; so she missed Chambers putting her hand over his clenched fist.

I'm listening, said Captain Shepard, through gritted teeth. His fist unclenched, and Chambers' hand slipped back to his wrist.

Jana put her hands palm down on the table, composed herself, and declared: I fear we will need you: and I fear for all of us, with Chambers and her sisters around.

"We?" asked Shepard.

"By 'we', and 'us', I don't just mean humans. Kill me now if you must, Captain. But there is context you should know."

Shepard frowned. "That would be these 'Sisters?'" He felt Kelly's grasp on his wrist tighten ever so slightly. She leaned towards his shoulder, saying quietly:

"Not really sisters, Shepard. My sisters are dead. I think Jana means people in some ways like me."

"There's no-one quite like you."

"True enough. All humans are unique, even identical twins–"

"–That's not what I meant."

"John, do you recall Brooks? Hope Lilium, when I knew her? Jana, am I right?"

"You know you are."

"Kelly, wait. You knew Brooks? That syrupy con artist, peddling innocence?"

"Yes. And Jana. Who also knew Brooks well, before she left Cerberus with a bang."

"Brooks is no sister to you. You don't resemble each other."

"John. To my mortal shame, I have to tell you: she most certainly is. Both of us have a set of – gifts, perhaps. And neither of us has used them as wisely or well as we might. For getting people to see things our way. Amongst, um, other things."

John Shepard gave his girl a cool on-mission look.

"Except when you look at us like that. Then it doesn't work. That's your gift."

Shepard shook his head. "No. There are differences; you can admit to such things; Brooks can't. Also, I've never known you to hurt a living soul where you had a choice. There are other points of difference, but I will not go into that right now. Admiral, I gather the context of Jana's remarks really was that she feared for civilization?"

Mikhailovich considered this. "That is a fair assessment."

Shepard leaned back, folding his arms. "I can give that idea head room, for a short time. First though: Jana, you said sisters. Plural. There's more than just Brooks."

Jana began to answer, but Chambers coughed: "John. There's one on this ship."

"What!? Where? Who?"

"In our stateroom, Shepard. The old XO's office. She was changing Felicia when I left – don't look at me like that, please, she's as pure as the driven Russian snow and I swear she'd defend Felicia with her life."

Mikhailovich nodded. Shepard visibly relaxed a little. "Alright. I have a little faith."

"Except she tells me to call her Maria – in English. Won't say the patronymic, in fact won't speak Russian to me at all, so…"

"An assumed name."

"One assumes so. I think one might assume wrong. It's not uncommon among young folk to avoid the patronymic and just use the given name. But here? Surprising."

The Admiral clapped. "Bravo, Chambers. You exceed all my expectations. Which, I have to tell you, were excruciatingly high after the incident with 'Billy'. How long have you known, may I ask?"

"The instant she was handed Felicia for feeding. She looked at me. I looked at her. We both knew. It's very hard to explain…"

"Don't then."

"…Like color to a blind man."

"I take it back, that was actually useful." The Admiral leaned forward, tapped his ear for local encrypted comm:

"Brooks. Maria. Come. We are ready for you."

Criticality

Maria was first to turn up, bringing Felicia from their stateroom on the same floor. That's the kid at the comm board, realized Shepard. Brooks arrived moments later, offered Shepard a rueful grin, and stood beside the admiral.

Maria nodded at Jana; glanced at the Admiral; passing Felicia to Kelly, she favored Shepard with a shy smile. Kelly joined in.

The whole scene seemed to glow. Shepard caught his breath. Jana gasped.

Then Maria sat down, clasped her hands on the table, and looked around brightly, awaiting events. Shepard stole a look at Mikhailovich; he seemed a little stunned, turning slowly to Brooks, now at parade rest, grinning at him:

"Never seen that before, Admiral? I'm too bitter and twisted for that, lately."

Mikhailovich exhaled a long, slow, breath. "So, Shepard. You get that every day?"

"If I've been good. Sometimes it plugs directly into the libido."

"Perhaps I was a little hard on Jana."

"There might perhaps be some legitimate reason for concern, yes. I refuse to believe that of Kelly, and I suspect you refuse to believe it of Maria. Rightly. But Brooks…"

"Wait, what? I'm feeling quite well disposed to the admiral. He did get me out."

"You see? Now, is Brooks up to speed on Jana's perilous recommendations?"

"No. Maya, the good doctor here would have me squirrel Shepard away for 'a rainy day', neutralize Ms Chambers in some way, and make an end of you."

"Okay. The last one I comprehend. The first two are not going to happen, and what about Maria here?"

"I'm supposed let nature take its course."

"Oho. Maria, get Chambers to explain. Or your admiral. Might actually work. When do I get the bullet, Peter?"

"You don't. We should now bring up the reason for you being sprung from Limbo."

"You know, in the rush I missed that?"

"I did not inform you. If you would all kindly follow me, I would like you to meet two broken people. I have Trevor and Lisa in the med bay, Maya. Jana?"

"I'm about ready to show that diagnostic session with the brain scans, Admiral. If it takes years, we will put them together again. I have a plan."

"Good. But that depends on all of you being alive, awake, and alert. And that, Shepard, includes Jana. Does she live?"

"I would have a word with Jana in private. With Kelly. But yes, she lives."

Close your eyes with holy dread

After the drama of the last few hours the last thing Admiral Mikhailovich wanted to see was a Priority flash on his private terminal in the loft. Before tackling that he shaved and washed, noting uncomfortably how grey and fatigued he looked. Getting old.

It was Hackett.

"Peter, I have important news."

"Good, or bad?"

"We're not sure yet. Man, you look terrible. What's been happening over there?"

"Are we on a secure line? Yes, I see we are. Briefly, Steven, Shepard was the target of what amounted to an amateurish but dangerous bomb."

"Bomb!"

"Set to go off deep in the bowels of the ship. Engineers made it safe, Eva defused it; I'm told it wouldn't have been fatal but North Cape might have lost propulsion."

"Holy… wait, Terra Firma? Indoctrinated?"

"Not those. Shepard cottoned on to him, I still don't have the full story. No terrorist, some kind of criminal, Shepard gave me a summary but there's been a lot happening and I haven't grasped it all. The worst part was his wife made me the instrument of her execution of the hooligan – in such a way that it was self-defence. Shepard told me afterwards she did it to prevent him executing the bastard out of hand."

"That's… characteristic. Is it all over?"

"Not really. The SOB had been processed by our criminal pathology clinics."

"Oh. Them. Hang on… How did he still even remember who he was, let alone be still a psychopath?"

"That's the point. And there was this other thing. She wove a circle 'round him thrice and told me exactly what the CrimPath people missed. Among other things, he was some sort of mutant, so they clipped the wrong parts of the brain."

"Wait, what? 'Wove a circle 'round him thrice?'"

"Coleridge, man. Look, Shepard's girl neutralized a dangerous man of defective memory. Don't anglophones read their literature anymore? But I mean it, she really did slowly walk around him three times, I think it was a kind of hypnosis."

"Hannah's listening. She says it'll be some sort of data-gathering or diagnostic."

"As God is my witness, I'm not sure just what it was, but it was spooky as hell."

"We've seen her in action. I'm not sure what you saw, but I believe you."

"Good, you might have some notion of what I mean, then. Steven, your man Shepard is a scary son of a bitch, you know that. But I tell you, his woman is scarier. Half my crew were crossing themselves afterwards. And the sequel didn't help."

"Sequel? Oh no… Did Hannigan do something else spooky?"

"Not exactly, except I introduced her to Brooks and Maria. In Shepard's presence. There was a brief demonstration of skills. I had to lie down afterwards."

"What were you thinking?!"

"My hand was forced. The upshot is, Brooks will work on reversing Reaper indoctrination with Jana."

"Good. Did Hannigan fit in? And Maria?"

"My crew's decided she's some kind of angel. I mean seriously."

"Oh dear. Let me know if this becomes a problem. As for Maria–"

"Actually the effect is sort of positive, and Maria so far fits in. But they also think Ensign Eva Coré is a sort of spirit, facts notwithstanding."

"That's fixable. Just tell them Eva's the ship AI."

"The way that bloody AI played with the mind of my pilot didn't help. He was a very bad boy, but I'm not sure he deserved Eva's aversion therapy. Look, what's this news?"

"My media contacts and spies tell me that the UNAS President – "

"Chris Huerta? The zombie?"

"– him, yes. The state governors cornered him over an Article V convention. Huerta's announced to media under embargo, just the day before getting on his Air Force transport ship for Arcturus Station, that he's going to implement the convention as direct democracy by secure electronic vote."

"So the public votes for its congressmen and senators electronically, big deal. In Russia we'd been doing that for over a century."

"He's talking binding referendums. On the content of the constitution! Never mind legal scholars sitting in a room and imposing their vision. And he's proposing to apply it to elections as well. Things like recall of elected officers, by national and state vote."

"He can't do the states without changing their individual constitutions too. At the federal level, you're going to get a bunch of uneducated housewives running the country by instant messaging, and that's the best-case scenario."

"I guess we'll find out. He's also proposing a court of cassation to break electronic votes which are at cross purposes. More important, he's actually implemented it. He's put the infrastructure in place over the last week."

"How would that work?"

"If two referendums are passed giving different results the public will have to vote on which one it wants. As well, he wants an electronic supreme court sitting over the nine judges – if the public doesn't like an interpretation, they're going to be able to say so by instant digital vote and make it stick – "

"Hah. Justice really will be of the people, by the people, for the people."

"Subject again to cassation, making them choose which of the incompatible options they want."

"Even so, dear God, there will be war. Except there's already a civil war there."

"Exactly, the third so far, but it doesn't stop trade or the economy. Thing is Peter, the nation's in an uproar, so are its neighbors, and he's about to get on a ship and go. With the Veep."

"Who's running the country while they're gone?"

"The secretary of state, that's not a problem, except he's going full speed ahead on the electronic voting. It'll be in place before the Governors force a convention."

"That convention will be almost a coup!"

"Except it's within the letter of the constitution it's about to change. Think of it as a revolution."

"I know a coup when I see one. Even if it's in reverse."

"And on that subject, you have your own problems. Tevos wants to speak with you."

"Anything to do with Normandy and North Cape being joined by Pegasus?

"Yes, Liara T'Soni is commanding. I'll get her to fill you in at Gagarin."

"The Shadow Broker. My own interview. Cool."


Next chapter: #88, "The Great Game, revisited"


Friday, August 14, 2015